Blog // Connect Ohio

09/28/11

Low Number of Ohio Small Businesses Online, Google Offering Help

By COH Staff

Today, a main source for finding information about a business is to search for their website or online presence. It is shocking to think that many businesses are still not online. According to Google, 97 percent of Americans go to the Internet to look for local products and services.Connect Ohio’s 2011 Broadband and Business Assessment reveals two-thirds of Ohio businesses do not use broadband and do not have an online presence.

Google is offering to help Ohio businesses get online with the “Ohio Get Your Business Online” program. The program is designed to help businesses create and maintain a website. It begins today in Columbus and continues through next week with stops in other major Ohio cities.

Helping small businesses get online can increase their annual revenue, which in turn can generate more jobs and economic productivity.

Having a company website not only makes the company more easily accessible, but helps provide an over-all convenience. The Broadband and Business Assessment found that Ohio businesses with-out broadband have an annual revenue of $300,000, while Ohio businesses with broadband and a website have a median revenue of $800,000.

Additional key statistics from the assessment include:• Statewide, 67% of all Ohio businesses subscribe to broadband• Ohio businesses pay a median monthly price of $67.36 for their broadband service

The assessment found that existing barriers for small businesses being online is that they don’t see a need for it, expense, or being uninformed of the benefits to being online. Programs such as Google’s can be very helpful in over-coming some of these barriers.